Home OpinionLast wordOil and gas will not save Lebanon

Oil and gas will not save Lebanon
ENAR

by Diana Kaissy & Sibylle Rizk

As Lebanon races to enter the new oil producers club, decision-makers display a dangerous tendency to put all hopes on this uncertain sector and label it as the economic savior. This goes against the advice of Lebanese experts who have been warning against a “presource” curse  (the underperformance of economic growth after a commercial discovery, but long before production—a result of skyrocketing expectations and a correlated increase in public spending and/or borrowing) and calling for structural remedies to the economic crisis. Early last month, Pierre Duquesne, the French envoy in charge of the CEDRE dossier, warned against the “false hope” that oil and gas extraction was a “magic remedy.” The Lebanese economy is facing great challenges. Indicators show signs of a prolonged contraction. The financial model long used to maintain the Lebanese standards of living—despite unsustainable levels of public debt, budget deficit, and current account deficit—is now on the verge

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1 comment

Ehab Aboultief October 16, 2019 - 10:27 PM

what are the subcontracting companies that will work incompanion with total?

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